A shield is a simple board of any material resistant enough to receive a blow and let its wearer survive. That simple. There are uncountable kinds of shields all over the world and each culture has its own distinctive form(s). My personal favourite: the germanic round shield, around 80 centimeters in diameter and with an umbo (round metal piece) and a nice painting on the front part. But this defensive item has a wider function than many other people think of.

Let us start first with a little review on shields in the Middle Ages, since this is my area of expertise. Most of the shields I will describe will have similar use in other cultures.

Comparison of a roman soldier and a germanic soldier.

As stated before, shields are an integral part of many warriors in the past. They used to have a different size depending of the need. Romans were known for carrying huge and long defense, oftentimes covering the whole body. Those are known as towers-shields, used to create lines of defense. This way, the infantry could hold attacks on open fields easily. Part of the normal weaponry of the legionary allowed the roman empire to expand its territory, since the using of that protection required a lot of group training and discipline.

Still, the biggest weakness was its use in close quarters and with no space. Because of its size it did not permit the common soldier to move freely, and not any weapon was usable behind that little wall. Usually it was accompanied by a short to long lance-like weapon and a short sword to be able to grab the weapon with the other hand. Soon enough, the barbaric tribes of the north and the east destroyed the highly static infantry by making ambushes. The battle at Teutoburg was only one of the many battles that showed the weaknesses of the otherwise excellent roman military education.

Germanic shield wall

The germanic people themselves tried not to use shields, but when acting as a unified force (which was more often than imagined) they were able to seal off vast expanses of the battlefield making a similar wall to their roman counterparts. Since the shield was smaller, the mobility increased incredibly. Now the soldiers could duck under the shield for a barrage of arrows and then move on to a charge. Still, the shield bas bulky and heavy on the arm of the fighter. By my own experience I can state that it required a good mastery to be able to fight effectively with it. Specially in tight spots of a fray, when single combat became the main way to reach an enemy, the round shield, made of leather and wood, was discarded. Part of this became later part of the myth of the beserkr, a warrior that eschewed the protection for an all frontal assault and, thus, became invincible.

Later on, as the crusades drew neared, the european warriors started to make the shield smaller and the armour pieces tougher. I will talk later about the armor, but for the sake of this article, I will just say that the chain mail started to cover the body more and more, making the triangular shield a perfect option for quick protection against immediate physical attacks and rains of arrows. Still a bit cumbersome, the shield did only protect less than half a body, but it became easier to carry (only with the hand instead of the full arm) and thus easier to leave behind in case of tight situation.

Finally, for the XVth century, the shields were almost non-existent. Many people started to trust more on their plate armour than in the bulky shield. Even a well crafted gauntlet with some chain mail and leather below could parry or, even better, deflect an incoming attack. The era of the shield was practically over and, although the policemen use it still as riot gear, the protective board was only used to maintain position, but was not for an all out attack anymore. But it is not to say that nobody used it anymore: poor people and commoners were forced to use shields, since this was their only way to protect themselves from the enemy. Only a noble or a rich burgher could afford a good full plate armour.

Two warriors against one, sword and shield. Notice that the shild is barely a bit bigger than a fist, since its main function was to deflect attacks, not block them.

Coming back to the missing use of the shield, there was still a good way to use it aside from blocking. A soldier could take the rim as a battering weapon, making the shield maybe on of the deadliest weapons. In a good strike the experienced warrior could hit the throat, breaking it despite any protection it may have had and thus killing the victim in a good blow. Many movies fail to mention that element, and usually we only see them used for protection. Movies noteworthy of showing the full functionality of the rim-attack are The Lord of the Rings and 300, though.

In other words, for many sword masters today, and surely in the past, the shield was a weapon, but not a protection. Running over an opponent was easier with a board up front than using just the shoulder and ramming the edge into an arm could break a bone easily. This easily can become part of a fighting style of any warrior in any story. Although this technique was not used much, it still was a surprise attack that the enemy never expected. It may be not game changing in the overall point of view, but life-saving in a moment of need.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little part of information, and I will see you next post. Please comment if you liked it!

When we think knights, we usually think one of the following two things: either the man that shines in the sun and raises his sword as a preferred weapon, or one that just rapes women and burns villages, dirty and stinky. The truth is, it is a bit more complicated. Knighthood is one of the western world’s illusions, a factor that pretty much defines how we see honor and justice.

Modern rendition of a frankish warrior.

So, where is the origin of this incredibly overrated strike force? Historians can go back as far as to roman ages, but to make it short, I will just summarize their creation: warriors of germanic tribes that “invaded” Rome took over the role of rulers with some latin elements, justifying their position of leadership with the use of brute strength. Back in the early Middle Ages, people were in dire need of securing their lands and lives from constant outbursts of violence, be it by another religion, another tribe or even a neighbor. The only way to control this was with the use of weapons.

This made the main and leading warrior force, the one with the resources to get a heavy armor, the most important element in an army… at least namely. Although foot soldiers were still the backbone of every well-rounded army, mostly common folk they could force and trick to fight, the chevaliers were the leaders, specialized and highly trained in warfare. Their main tactic was to scare the commoners by charging into them with clanking armors and loudly neighing horses. You can try to imagine it: a ton of meat and flesh running into you while you hold a wooden lance or a small axe you usually use to cut wood.

Obviously this was accompanied by a lot of propaganda. Knights started to extol themselves, first singing and writing poems, then with help of writing clerics they paid they created the grand legends we today read and make movies of: King Arthur, the Round Table and Tristan and Isolde, between many others.

Figurine of a knight as they may have looked during the crusades.

The key word here is also “clerics”. The rules that we know as the ethic code of chivalry comes from the idea of the Holy Christian Church when they tried to give the mounted warriors a direction for the good of Christendom. Honor the ladies, defend the religion and be brave and honorable is the result of a mix of pagan custom and the head of faith in medieval Europe. But then, the reality clashed for hundreds of years against the ideal.

In an effort to educate the perfect moral warriors, the image was enforced as good as possible. But as in any other thing the humans do, there was a mixed picture of the application of the ideal. I recommend to read and watch the story written by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones to create an idea of the situation. Some knights tried to follow the rules to be stronger through their heightened ethics, while others applied the rules only to their convenience.

Map of the Battle of Courtrai in 1302.

Much stronger became the conflict by the end of the Middle Ages. Many historians mark the battle at Courtrai, in the Netherlands, as the end of the Age of Cavalry. There the french knights charged almost blindly into a tightly formed line of burghers and common folk. The rebels who had dared to oppose the french warriors also used a swamp as protection of the flank and hundreds of traps prepared for horsemen. You can imagine the result: the whole battle was won by the line of footmen.

I myself tend to disagree on that. After some investigation I have come to the conclusion that knighthood in itself was mostly an illusion. The best way to employ a formation of chevaliers was to finish off an enemy in a last stampede or to attack a morally weak line of defense. Psychology was its main form offense. Even though the warriors were highly trained, they were mostly only employed when needed or when a certain victory was ahead.

There were hundreds of techniques they could use, mostly charging in circles and throwing lances before the final blow. But the tactics finally ended up being just a charge at full speed at the enemy. Thus the usefulness for the elite force of the knights became limited and gradually unimportant. Instead a new way was found to fill the ranks: common men without jobs that were open to kill for some money. Even though mercenaries were nothing new, in the latter centuries of the Middle Ages they became more and more popular; the Church wrote interdict after interdict against them and never got to something.

A representation of knights after a combat manual of the XVth century; the manual is told to be written by Hans Talhoffer by the Middle Ages.

Now, mix in the noble’s “love” of death. I think most of the nobles started retiring into government positions as the national states became centralized and replaced the feudal kingdoms. Those who still thought being a knight was the best died in the hands of the soldiers that were hired en masse, armed with guns, the new invention that revolutionized the war. Instead, the heavy cavalry became the focus of sports: the tourney became even more popular by the XVth century for a reason.

This may only be an outline of what the real being of a knight was in the Middle Ages. But it lets us glimpse on a group that weas nothing else but people who tried to better they reputation with help of another power group. But in the end they were nothing else more than humans who tried to keep the power their ancestors had won by force. Also, they influenced and maybe even inspired one of the most important styles of writing: heroic adventures. And are we not happy for that today when we read our favourite fantasy novels?

Hope you liked this little long post, but this is the first one in my historic series of posts. Hope you enjoy it!

May they smile upon your way!

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Welcome to a blog of gaming, movies, books and some history. In here I explore the stories that have carried us over decades, yes, even centuries, to what defines us today. I hope you enjoy it and comment, I am always open to respond!
This blog is updated whenever possible, once a week.